Museums, landmarks and heritage sites
Our heritage lives within our environment – sometimes visible and sometimes hidden – all available to be explored. All over Cape Town are rich and interesting markers of how our city came to be. Here is a guide to a handful of fascinating and important sites, landmarks and museums which make up some of our city's heritage resources.
Our early history
The central city is the oldest part of the City of Cape Town. It has been changing and growing since before the arrival of the VOC at the Cape in 1652. Middle Stone Age hand axes found in the foreshore are evidence of a time when the sea level was much lower than it is now.
Khoekhoe groups came into Table Bay to trade with passing ships well before the Dutch arrived to plant the garden that was to supply fresh vegetables to their ships. Table Mountain’s freshwater sources gave precious water to the early indigenous peoples and their livestock. In fact, Cape Town used to be called Camissa – meaning ‘the place of sweet waters’ – by the Khoekhoe people.
Fast fact
Hoerikwaggo is the original Khoekhoe name for Table Mountain. It means “mountain in the sea”. Table Mountain was the first mountain to be formed 300 million years ago at sea level out of flattened sandstone and was pushed to the surface when the continents split which is why today it is such a flat surface.
The Company's Gardens
The VOC’s gardens (some of which are preserved in today’s Company’s Garden) as well as
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden were once grazing grounds for Khoekhoe livestock.
See our map of the
VOC Vegetable Gardens.
The Company’s Garden was the Dutch-owned fruit and vegetable garden growing fresh produce which was sold to passing ships and sailors and which fed much of the early colony. You can visit the garden and see how it has been transformed into a botanical paradise and community food garden.
Two Rivers Urban Park
Popular history tells us that this was the location of the second Khoi/Dutch war, which began when Dutch farmers began to settle along the Liesbeek River. Their hedges, built to protect their farms, encroached on Khoekhoe grazing ground and clashes began.
Fast fact
The legacy of water lives on. Today, the collection of water from springs in Newlands is an ongoing cultural practice for families who have always lived in the area of Newlands, and for whom the collection of water has symbolic meaning. Ensuring free access to places of significance to communities, such as the Newlands springs, is one of the ways in which heritage can be protected for future generations.
Raapenberg Bird Sanctuary, a section of the Liesbeek River, also forms part of Two Rivers Urban Park.
Castle of Good Hope
The
Castle of Good Hope is the oldest building in Cape Town and was built by Jan van Riebeek when he arrived in the Cape in 1652.
The importance of the Cape as a halfway point in the trade route between Europe and the East is highlighted by the fact that the Cape was occupied at least twice in the late 18th and early 19th century: The Battles of Muizenberg and Blaauwberg marked the military occupation of the Cape by the British. Evidence of these happenings can be found throughout the City. Learn more by taking a
walking tour of the city.
Slave heritage
Slave Memorial
The Slave Memorial on Church Square is a heritage landmark and features 11 granite blocks (some engraved with the names of slaves) that honour the contribution slaves made to our culture and heritage and acknowledges the suffering they experienced.
Slave Lodge
The
Slave Lodge is the second oldest building in South Africa. Once a communal slave lodge, it is now a museum showcasing the city’s slave history as well as its culture and society in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Fast fact
A 1725 runaway slave (‘droster’) community – which grew to 60 people – survived at Cape Hangklip for 109 years, until slavery was abolished in 1834.
Prestwich Memorial
The Memorial is dedicated to the memory of Cape Town’s 18th century slaves and marginalised people, who died and were buried in the informal cemetery between Somerset Road and the historical shoreline. The Memorial is situated on the site of the 18th century Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery.
Please see our
Prestwich Memorial brochure.
The
Koopmans-de Wet House in Strand street is the oldest house museum in the country. It offers a fascinating look back into the living space of a well-off Cape family of the 18th Century.
Early to mid 20th Century Cape Town
The following museums and sites offer important glimpses into our apartheid history. Apartheid was an extremely painful period in our city and country’s past. Although often upsetting, learning about apartheid helps us remember those who suffered and reminds us of the need for continued inclusivity in our city.
Here are some suggested sites to visit:
Langa Township Heritage Museum
The Langa Township Heritage Museum is made up of the Old Pass Office and the Old Post Office. The Old Pass Office has a sad history of being the ‘gateway’ to the city for migratory workers. Many of these workers were harshly punished when they disobeyed the pass laws of the apartheid era.
The Pass Office is now used as a space for meetings and heritage workshops, and as a venue where visitors and tourists can learn about the history and urban life of the township.
District Six Museum
The
District Six Museum, in the eastern precinct of the city, commemorates the living memories of District Six and its legacy of forced removals. District Six was originally established as a mixed community. Under apartheid rule, the area was proclaimed ‘white only’ and more than 80 000 people were forcibly removed to what is now called the Cape Flats.
Fast fact
District Six has become a symbol of the forced removals of the apartheid era, but forced removals did not only happen in District Six. Harfield Village, Constantia, Newlands Village, Claremont and Sea Point (Tramways Road) are examples of communities that were declared 'white group areas'.
Gugulethu Seven Memorial
The
Gugulethu Seven Memorial remembers the deaths of seven young anti-apartheid activists in 1986.
Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum
The
Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum was established in 1958 as a hostel for workers in the nearby fruit and canning industry. The museum is a reminder of the living conditions that the migrant labour system imposed. Pay a visit to learn more about this system. You can also view the whole township on a guided walk.
Robben Island Museum
Robben Island has, over the years, been a prison, a hospital, a mental institution and a military base. It is best known for being 'home' to the world’s most famous prisoner and statesmen, Nelson Mandela. The
Robben Island Museum is definitely worth the visit.
Take a ferry from the
V & A Waterfront to Robben Island. Guided tours are offered by former political prisoners, who provide personal accounts of prison life on the island.
The city’s religious history
Explore some of Cape Town's rich religious history by visiting these famous religious sites and museums:
Bo-Kaap Museum
The
Bo-Kaap Museum is situated in the historic area that became home to many Muslims after the abolition of slavery. Bo-Kaap itself is well worth a visit to view the distinctive colourful houses, cobbled streets and calls to prayer that provide a unique Cape experience. The museum consists of a furnished house that depicts the lifestyle of a 19th century Muslim family.
South African Jewish Museum
The
South African Jewish Museum is a moving tribute and detailed account of one of the great South African Jewish communities of the diaspora. The museum takes visitors on a journey back to the South African Jewry’s early roots and shows how influential the community was in building South Africa as we know it.
St George’s Cathedral
Known as ‘The People’s Cathedral’ for its role in the resistance against apartheid,
St George’s Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in Southern Africa and the mother church of the Anglican Dioceses of Cape Town. Pay a visit to view the building or attend a service.
Kramats in the Cape
There are more than 20 recognised kramats (Muslim holy shrine burial sites) in the Cape Peninsula area. Five of the kramats are in a circle – Muslims call it the ‘holy circle’. They believe those spirits are protecting the city, hence the name ‘holy circle’.
The ‘holy circle’ consists of the following sites:
- The Kramat of Sheikh Yusuf Faure, Macassar, Cape Helderberg
- The Kramat of Tuan Matarah: Robben Island, Western Cape
- The Kramat of Sheikh Mohammed Hassen Ghaibie Shah al Qadri: Signal Hill Road, Cape Town
- The Kramats of Sheikh Abdurahman Matebe and Sayed Mahmud: End of Klein Constantia Road, Constantia Cape Town
- The Kramat of Tuan Guru: Top of Longmarket Street, Bo-Kaap
Visitor resource centres
We have visitor centres across Cape Town which provide more information resources, brochures and maps for those interested in discovering our city.
Mamre Visitor's Centre
Mamre is situated about an hour’s drive outside Cape Town. It was established in 1807 as one of the Moravian Mission settlements at the Cape. Prior to the establishment of the mission settlement, Mamre was a VOC outpost known as Groenekloof.
Places of interest in Mamre include the Mamre School, the Long House (a stone house formerly used as a barracks by the Dutch East India Company), the Water Mill, the Old Shop and the Old Mamre Moravian Church. For more information, visit the
Mamre Visitor Centre website.
Langa Visitor's Centre
Situated in the old Post Office, opposite the Gugu S’ Theba Cultural Centre in Washington Street, Langa. Langa is the oldest formally laid out township and is one of three suburbs, along with Pinelands and Maitland Garden Village, built in Cape Town as part of the Garden City initiative.
Prestwich Memorial Visitor's Centre
The
Prestwich Memorial is dedicated to the memory of Cape Town’s 18th century slaves and marginalized people who died and were buried in the informal cemetery between Somerset Road and the historical shoreline. The Memorial is situated on the site of the 18th century Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery.
Company’s Garden Visitor's Centre
Originally the home of the Manager of the Company’s Garden, the Visitor's Centre now houses the offices of the Cape Town Heritage Trust. Information pamphlets and brochures are for sale.
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